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Car and Driver: BMW Fined $40 Million for Mini Cooper Recalls

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BMW has been fined up to $40 million for a recall involving late-model Mini Cooper vehicles, according to a statement posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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The agency opened an investigation in September surrounding BMW’s alleged lateness in rectifying cars that failed certain side-impact crash standards, among them the 2014-2015 two-door Mini Cooper, Cooper S, and JCW Hardtop models. BMW has since admitted it violated the law by not informing NHTSA of a defect within five days, filing quarterly Early Warning Reporting data late, not notifying owners of the defect, and taking too long to file recall-related information with NHTSA.

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Under the order, BMW will pay a $10 million flat fine and another $10 million over two years to pay an auditor, develop analytics software to detect safety issues, train dealers not to sell recalled cars (after a NHTSA employee bought one), submit monthly recall reports, and show NHTSA it is following “best practices.” Another $20 million will be levied if BMW violates the order.

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The problem stemmed from three 2014 Cooper Hardtop models that NHTSA crash-tested last year that failed certain requirements to protect rear passengers in a side impact. In response, BMW said it had certified the Cooper using data from the heavier Cooper S, and said the Cooper models would comply at the heavier weight rating. By December 2014, BMW initiated a recall to install additional foam padding in the side panels on certain 2014 models, and in January 2015, recalled the 2014-2015 Cooper to update the vehicle weight-rating labels with higher weight ratings, thereby putting the cars into compliance. But in July this year, NHTSA crash-tested the heavier 2015 Cooper S without the padding fix and discovered, like the original Coopers, that it also failed. BMW expanded the original recall that same month to include 2015 models. A total of 15,653 cars were affected.

In separate recalls related to crash safety, the 2014-2016 Mini Cooper, Cooper S, and JCW models were recalled in October for passenger frontal airbags that could fail to deploy (the 2014-2015 BMW i3 was also included). In November, BMW recalled the 2014-2015 Mini Cooper and Cooper S for defective passenger-airbag sensors in the seat cushions (and in April, earlier 2005-2008 Cooper models were also recalled for a similar problem).